German Melee PowerRanking Summer 2017

SmashEurope is honoured to release the German Summer Melee Power Ranking of 2017 on behalf of the German Melee Backroom members part of the panel. They have provided us with a brief introduction of each player and a reasoning for their placement on the list. Read on to learn who made the most progress, who are the current players to look out for and of course who takes the top spot.

Introduction

After another 6 months period we’re proud to present you the latest German Super Smash Bros. Melee Power Ranking! This period started on January 1st and ended on June 30th. Just like last time we didn’t include Austria since it’s too hard to compare their top players with the top players from Germany.
To be ranked, players had to attend at least 3 monthly-sized tournaments within the period, including one national- or international-sized tournament. That led us to not rank a lot of people who would most likely make it into the 20 people-long list of ranked players. These players are the following:

Honorable Mention:
DaLung – Luma – Ravenlord – reaper – Sixx – Yomi

Ranking people is hard, especially at the end of every list the gap in skill becomes thinner as well as it is harder to compare results. The following players didn’t quite make it into the top 20 but are arguably around the skill level of the bottom ranked players:

On the edge:
4tilt – Konati – koukin – Levy – Stivo

The Ranking

Despite often flying under the radar, RanziD is the only ranked Captain Falcon main in Germany. His playstyle is based on hard reads and they do seem to pay off: besides always being a threat at Northern Germany’s monthlies, he also had a good run at HFLAN 2017, placing 33rd and beating French Link main Aether along the way. RanziD is also one of the hosts of the ever so successful “Hannover Underground Monthly” series.

Even though he hasn’t travelled as much in the latest period, Kaese was able to net himself decent results at the few tournaments he went to. Internationally, he placed 33rd at HFLAN 2017 and 13th at Mission Complete 4. His patient and tech-chase heavy playstyle helps him keep his position as his region’s gatekeeper. Kaese is also a heavy contributor to the German Smash scene by hosting a weekly tournament series.

Known for his mixed bag of fun secondary counterpicks like GaW, Doc, Falco, Falcon, and more, phL is a unique Fox main and character in the German community. Since the beginning of 2017 he was able to take sets of players like Frozenlight and old school legend Luma which marked his breakthrough point into the upper echelon of the German player base. Though his steep improvement made him a tough competitor even for the best in Germany, he still finds himself heavily struggling in the Fox ditto. Keep an eye on phL for the next couple of months, he might be becoming more dangerous than you would like.

Frozenlight, also known by his infinitely nerdier alterego FrozenLight1337, is a Jigglypuff main from Bavaria who rose to the upper ranks of Germany’s Melee community in what felt like a heartbeat. As quickly as he rose and his results became more and more impressive, as quickly he disappeared over the course of the past year since he has been focussing much more intensively on university since October. Dabbling around with secondary characters on local and regional level tournaments lately he realized that he doesn’t like to lose anymore and started trying to find a balance in university and Melee which is why he picked up that notorious Jigglypuff of his and began travelling again. We can only hope to see him around a lot more all over Europe in the near future as he is also well known for his skills behind the mic as a commentator.

Fatman.spam is a promising German Ice Climbers player and – by being only 17 years old – the youngest player on this ranking. With his strong ground based playstyle he always manages to pull out some sneaky wobble setups. Fatman.spam is seen at every German national, where he frequently upsets players ranked above him, especially Falco mains. Currently he’s standing positive against players such as Etril, Stivo, Alain and koukin. When facing problems, Fatman.spam spends days, even weeks in the lab, trying to find solutions for certain matchups.
Fun fact: Fatman.spam is known for teaching his opponents how to SDI downthrow chaingrabs mid set.

In the face of an on-going inner conflict between maining Marth or Fox, Rikzz still earned himself a top 15 spot in the first half of 2017. The immense effort and time he puts into the game makes him a dangerous new school player. In his early days his Marth was already better than most, understanding how to use his range and dashdance. His playstyle created a meme of people screaming “RIKZZ” whenever someone does an F-Smash with any character, but the people now give him the respect that he always deserved. After finding more enjoyment with Fox in countless netplay sessions he’s trying him out in tournament as well. His quick and nifty combo game and playstyle are impressive and hard to deal with.

Meruem is a very oldschool Fox main. So oldschool in fact, legend has it that some time in like 1795 he managed to push our community’s undisputed champion Ice to the limit with his Samus. You will understand the true meaning of mental pressure when playing him. Meruem and his teammate Nicki spend hours together, practising the game and finding the best options for specific matchups. He is Hannover’s number 2 for a reason. His undeniable talent and core understanding of surprising opponents made him also bring Overtriforce to a game 3 last stock situation at Icebreaker, which he then lost crumbling under the pressure that – ironically – he himself is usually known to put people under.

Being the dominant force in southern Bavaria, 1der is a Fox that shines mostly through his platform techchase game, which nets him punish continuations where other players start to reposition themselves. This makes him absolutely dominate his region, though he is facing some serious competition from old school legend .tea these days who recently moved to Munich from Vienna. 1der himself has a very long history within the German community having been around since as early as 2007 under his then alterego “Kev Boy”. Over the years he has become a hidden boss in the true sense of the phrase only having started travelling a lot more very recently. If he comes to your region you won’t be able to miss him since you’ll hear him screaming as a means to cheer on his travel buddies at any given moment. Watch out for some hype!

Originally hailing from Monterrey, Mexico, Mawacate is now known to be the strongest Luigi main in Germany. After remaining rather inactive in 2016, he made his comeback at HFLAN 2017 with a stunning performance, beating European top players Frenzy and Mahie for a 17th place finish. Being one of the most handsome guys you’ll ever encounter at a Smash tournament his sense for style translates very well to Mawacate’s gameplay as he will always go for the most stylish option imaginable which works quite well in combination with his highly aggressive playstyle. When he’s not at a tournament tearing people up big time you will most likely find him posting what feels like 70 memes a day on facebook.

Indisputably the most talked about up and comer, Nicki made a name for himself as the clear cut number one in Hannover, from where three other players made it on this ranking. With his strong mindset focused on learning, which probably originated from playing Tennis in his youth, he’s been improving rapidly ever since he started playing in 2015. He still struggles with matchups that don’t occur in his city, but he’s making waves nationally in his prime matchups with wins over Pasi and a moneymatch win 3-2 over Däumling at Awakening II. But despite his talent and skill, he’s one of the most humble and helpful members of our community and we can just wish for him to represent us as a top player in the future.

Charon – also known as the little bicycle and / or the little telephone – is one of the most promising players we have in Germany. After a year long hiatus he moved back to Berlin in 2016 where he immediately came out stronger than ever before, having made his homework in his absence regardless. Even though he doesn’t travel all that much these days because he is focussed mostly on university, Charon finds time to improve through local activity which makes him one of the more underrated players we have. With his punish game being his strong suit it definitely shows how much he has learned from his good friend and former Marth main Ice.

You all know and love this guy. SchlimmShady, formerly known as SuMa (because he plays Super Mario, you know?), is the single most impressive Mario main Europe let alone Germany has ever seen. Having been able to take sets over Overtriforce before and take out 4 stocks of Android in crews he definitely is a force to be reckoned with. His local success is rather limited compared to the way he shines on a national or even continental scale but figuring out what to do against Mario is a must when playing SchlimmShady. He tries to focus on developing his Dr. Mario to ultimately switch permanently to the only available supposedly superior character that still feels pretty much the same. While studying the minor tweaks he has to implement into his play to fulfill the switch he is simultaneously working on a documentary on the Japanese Smash community as a passion project that helps him with his aspirations of becoming a film editor.

pheX has returned to Germany’s Power Ranking for the seventh year in 2017. While the soon-to-be Doctor of Law hasn’t travelled extensively this year, he still managed to place 5th at both Smash in Wittenberg 3 and Icebreaker. pheX’s prowess in the spacie matchups as well as his out-of-shield game remain unparalleled by any German Peach main to this day. While he is sometimes showing weaknesses in some matchups that frustrate him more he can pull it off on the big stage almost every single time which net him wins over the likes of Usleon, Nicki and Stivo. This consistency and ability to work like a Swiss watch even under the pressure of the spotlight being on him puts him as high on this season’s Power Ranking as he always has been.

Mainly known for being a legendary doubles player alongside his partner in crime Prinz, Kellner also started making waves since moving to a way more active region away from Southern Germany (a city by the hilarious name of “Lörrach”). In NRW, arguably the second strongest region, his results have been more solid than ever before. The list of wins over the course of the last season is seemingly endless. Being up in the set count vs SchlimmShady, Nicki, Fauster and Vino, this aggressive yet crafty Peach is a force to be reckoned with. Also “Kellner” is just his last name and it literally means waiter. Consider yourself served.

One of the three premier German Peach players alongside Kellner and pheX but more importantly one of the most beloved human beings in our community, Blaze has had an extraordinarily successful season as a player, while still TOing and managing the Backroom. His consistency this season has awarded him with the best rank he’s ever gotten. His overall solid Combo- and Neutral Game make him an extremely dangerous opponent for almost anyone which led to him getting Ws over the likes of Avalancer, Fauster, Däumling, BeLia and pheX but the real catch comes with his mind boggling movement. When you have the chance to tune into a German tournament stream stay tuned in between – Blaze might show up and showcase his ridiculous hand warmers.

You could call the tournament runs of Prinz truly miraculous, considering how effortless the Jigglypuff main is climbing to the top of Europe. We all saw his run last season at DGWinter, where he got 2nd over Jeapie. This year he’s been going in even harder on the Dutch, taking down Zgetto 2-0 at HFLAN, where his bracket ended in a close 3-2 set vs Makenshi for Top 12. Even more impressive are his teams performances with Kellner, with whom he even made it on the FUSE Doubles Circuit. Especially notable are their first place at DGWinter, beating Däumling/Blaze, Sixx/Lyrix and reaper/Jeapie all from loser’s side and their several wins over Adam/Zgetto.
Struck by his primary school friend Kellner moving away from their hometown “Lörrach”, Prinz is currently flying slightly under the radar. But we are sure that he will come back with a bang, as working miracles and surprising us is all he does.

At times the most explosive player you could imagine, Usleon has definitely showcased his trademark “caliente” playstyle this season by dominating his region while also taking multiple sets and also an entire tournament over Pasi. While he wasn’t too active out of region he showed up big time whenever he travelled with wins over reaper, Jadde, Blaze and pheX. A continuation of his success is hindered by the pressure of the masters degree in information technology and neuroscience the Chilean is working on at the moment. Still we all hope for the best and wish to see the occasionally quickest Sheik on earth to keep putting on the immense pressure he’s known to put people under.

One of the most son-in-law looking dudes you can imagine, Pasi also holds his own as an incredibly talented Melee player. Ever since 2007’s Smashfest Leipzig there was no doubt that the kid from Vienna will make a huge impact at least on the german speaking community. He’s an insanely smart player which gets most obvious when you watch him dashdance-bait any opponent into doing something incredibly dumb. Unfortunately for him due to not owning a setup and having constant trouble finding a new and working controller, his lack in practice shows when looking at his punish game. While being bare bones and effective he often lacks that one last bit of optimization. With a new season around the block and a new controller found we might be able to see more of this amazing oldschool Fox in the coming months.

Though his title as the undisputed European Ice Climbers champion is threatened by our good friend JohnnyFight from Gothenburg these days, Däumling still has a fair claim for the Frozen Throne. Especially his insane loser’s bracket run at Awakening II was more than enough evidence than anyone needed to reassure themselves that Däumling’s unparalleled mental fortitude and resilience wasn’t lost in between ranking seasons. His crazy Sopo is proof of his Ryan Lockwood like C L U T C H N E S S which is why we are hoping for him to proceed to take names this summer, maybe even some really big ones again.

Keeps the No. 1 spot for what feels like 700 years and counting, Ice has – as you all know – shown no signs of slowing down. With regards to Germany there’s really nothing to talk about, since he just hasn’t lost a single set in the past year and we all agree on the fact that it’s highly unlikely that any of this will change. Internationally he has had ups and downs that we all followed attentively from home as always while cheering him on through the screens of our phones, computers and tablets hoping that maybe this time around he will repeat his Big House 6 performance while we gave all our cash to smash.gg praying for him to make it into the Smash Summit. As a wise man in our ranking discussion said with regards to his performance against any of us Germans: He just melts people’s faces off.

Congratulations to all the players that made the PR and best of luck to those aspiring to make it onto the next edition of the PR. To celebrate their accomplishments we’d like to conclude this post with a few combo highlights of each player on the PR. You’re encouraged to share this around over your social media accounts.

Photographs used have been credited under the ranking images, graphics have been provided by solariiiiSSBM. Thanks go out to Joeri for converting the article to SE.